Overview
Abel-Truchet is one of the most renowned painters of the Belle-Époque. Student of Jules Lefebvre and Benjamin Constant at the Julian academy, his work is characterized by genre scenes, portraits, landscapes and cityscapes painted in the impressionist style and technique. Abel-Truchet particularly excelled in representing Parisian life set in Montmartre’s picturesque cabarets, including Le Chat Noir and Le Lapin Agile, also immortalized by Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec and Pablo Picasso.
From 1891, Abel-Truchet exhibited at various salons, notably the Salon d’Automne, Société Nationale des Beaux-Arts and Société des Humoristes, of which he was the founder.
In 1914, at the outbreak of the First World War, Abel-Truchet, aged 57, joined the First Engineers Regiment and took command of a camouflage unit. He died on the Auxerre battle field in 1918.